Another Perplexing Brain-Busting Mystery

That’s the argument being forwarded by some liberal activists and politicians as a way of stigmatizing laws that exempt certain professions, mainly restaurant workers, from the federal minimum wage.

However, there is little historical evidence for the argument.

“I don’t think tipping was particularly racial … It was more a matter of customers showing off their wealth,” said Gerald Friedman, professor of economics and history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and associate editor of the scholarly journal Labor History.

(snip)

Minimum wage fans have argued that that’s not merely wrong but a vestige of 19th racism. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a February op-ed that “tipping as an institution is rooted in the history of slavery.” Hodges has advocated that her city adopt a $15 minimum wage that would not allow exceptions for tips.

Looks like being based enough to solve simple riddles is going to be today’s theme for my waking hours.

(2) The fundamental underlying cause is minimum wage, but in our times, it’s easier to shut down opposition to a non-socialjusticey cause if you can find some way to attach a social justice narrative to it.